Falling Can Be Such Tricky Business
by goldfiiish
Summary: After following a small black creature into a forset and tripping down a hill, Xion is thrust into a world filled with darkness and finds that she might be the only one who can bring the light back. Inspired by Alice In Wonderland.
1. Down The Heartless Hole

Xion stretched out on the ground and sighed. Demyx, her brother, ruffled her newly dyed hair and sat down next to her. "What's up?"

"The sky... it's very pretty today, isn't it?" She said and put her hands behind her head. "So, what do you think of my hair?"

"Think it looked better blonde, that way I could actually claim you as my sister and stuff. But, it doesn't look too hideous like this." He laughed and patted her head again. "Just be glad I made the cut look better. Never ever cut your own hair again. Remember to pay me back sometime." He winked at her.

She rolled onto her stomach and pulled out grass and began to tie it into knots. "Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

"You seem down… shall I serenade you?" He said smiling and held out his sitar.

Xion gave him a quizzical look. "How did you haul that thing out here…? Oh, never mind, please do…" She smiled as he started strumming away at his sitar. The sound was just so peaceful to her… Just then a black little creature with yellow, glistening eyes ran past them. She gasped and rubbed her eyes. Tapping her brother's shoulder, she asked, "Did you see that?"

He blinked and looked over at her, "See what?" Demyx raised an eyebrow then smirked, "Maybe you inhaled a little too many chemicals from the dye." She stuck her tongue out and shoved him,

"If that were the case, with how much hair spray you use, you should be seeing a horde of those things." Demyx stuck his tongue out back at her as she stood up. "Well, you can stay here all day if you want but I'm going to go follow it." She started running towards where it went. Xion heard her brother calling for her to wait up but she kept running, planning to wait for him when she got to the place of the thing was going.

It felt to her like she kept running forever. But, she was afraid if she stopped to catch her breath she would be so far behind the creature that she would never find it. Eventually, she got to a forest, it was very eerie and dark looking but she didn't think of that ran right into the deep brush. Every so often, she would hear something scuffling across the forest floor. Xion looked back for a second to see if Demyx was still behind her, she couldn't see him but she didn't expect to, he was an insanely slow runner compared to her. She snapped her head back in front of her just in time to avoid a tree in her path.

In her effort to avoid the tree she tripped over a root. Xion let out a yelp as she tumbled down a hill at the side of the path. She put her hands over her head so she wouldn't get bumped up to bad. After a while she realized that she wasn't falling down a hill, she was just falling. Removing her hands from her head, she was awestruck at what she saw. She saw herself, except... it wasn't her present self. It was herself throughout her whole life.

It was her when she was five, at her birthday party, getting a little blue tricycle. Then it was when she was eight and a thirteen-year-old Demyx was showing her his new sitar and trying to teach her how to play it, then how they stomped on his old one after they gave up on her learning how to play. She saw herself at ten being held in her brother's arms when she fell out of a tree. It flashed to herself only a few hours earlier while she was dying and cutting her hair. She frowned at the memory and tried to make it go away.

Then she saw herself before she had changed anything. Shoulder length light blond hair smiling but the only weird part about it was the drawing pad in her hand. Xion despised drawing and barely ever had a notepad in her hand. She reached out a hand to touch the mirror but it crumbled around her as she did. She landed on the ground finally but it didn't comfort her at all. Everything was black and cold; she called out for Demyx a few times but had no response.

All the sudden, the blackness flew away like birds and a bright light appeared. Her eyes watered but, for some reason, she couldn't bear to look away. Her clothes ruffled from the breeze and she looked around her but almost everything was still black, except the floor. It was beautiful stain-glass and almost looked alive. She kneeled down to look more closely at the intricate design on the stain-glass floor.

It was a large castle with a shimmering silver heart behind it. Gasping, she put a hand over her mouth as the floor changed; beginning to tell its story. It showed a girl with red hair around the same age as Xion sitting in gold and red chair; she figured that the girl must be a princess of some sort. Then the girl had a large looking crown placed upon her head and Xion realized that the girl was a queen. When it showed a dark man with amber eyes showed up, she shivered. The man seemed to be made out of pure darkness and just looking into his eyes seemed to steal all warmth from her. The floor changed once again showing the dark man bowing before the Queen. A silver-haired boy (who also seemed to be around her age) appeared, talking to the dark man. Then the boy was running towards the girl and was franticly urging her out of the castle. The picture faded away and showed the boy turning into the dark man. Then the girl seemed to slowly fade black reaching her hand out to something. The picture changed to show the amber eyed man smirking and sitting in the Queen's chair. Everything went dark for a moment and Xion thought it was over when the castle appeared again but this time it was surrounded by black with the glowing eyes of the creature she had followed, and the heart behind the castle stopped shimmering and turned blood red and filled with a navy blue. A crack sounded and two lines of red drew an X through the middle.

Then the room was engulfed in light once again. She then saw herself in the floor. Slowly rising, Xion noticed that the floor had turned into a mirror. Her eyes moved to a colorful rectangle and the edge of the circular platform. She stepped towards it and slowly put her foot on it. Suddenly, another rectangle appeared slightly higher than the first. As she placed her foot on the next step, yet another one appeared. She continued up the steps until a large white door appeared in her path. She tried to push the door open, but, it wouldn't budge. Something in her mind told her that she needed a key. Xion almost went to see if it was back on the platform when she saw that the only step left was the one she was standing on, Guess I can only go forward from here. Biting her lip in frustration, she tried again to shove the door open. Her attempts where in vain and she plopped down onto her little step and tried to think of what to do.

"If only I had some sort of a key…" She grumbled to herself. Suddenly, a large silver and gold key popped into her hand. "What the-" She accidently dropped it and her jaw dropped as it fell into the darkness. She flipped her head back and made an irritated noise. She rubbed her face and started to bang against the door to see if anyone was behind it. If there were people behind the door, they didn't bother to open it for her. Letting out a sigh, she sat back down onto her step, disappointed in herself. Xion laid there for what seemed like hours until she thought of something. If she could conjure up the key before, what if she could do it again? She stood up on the step again and closed her eyes trying to picture the key in her hand.

Xion opened her eyes and smiled as she felt her hand grasp around the cool, metal handle of the key. She turned around to face the door and immediately felt stupid as she looked at the door. There wasn't a keyhole anywhere on the door. None the less, she stayed calm and touched the key to the door, praying that something would happen. She bit her lip and pressed harder against the door with the key. To her great surprise the key melted into the door, she pressed it in a little farther and the door began to shimmer. Taking a deep breath, she rammed the key through the door and it exploded in a cloud of sparkly dust. The force of it knocked her off the step. She screamed as she fell into the darkness.

Xion felt like she was falling painfully slow because it seemed like she had been plummeting for such a long time. She to her complete and total shock, she landed softly on red shag carpet. She let out a long sigh of relief and tried to lift herself off the ground, but her arms were shaking so badly that it made doing this a great struggle. Finally, she was able to heave herself into a sitting position and began to observe her surroundings. First she noticed that it was no longer dark, in fact the room was rather bright and cheerful. Second, she saw a little table next to her with a small vial of something on it. She leaned forward to inspect it and saw a tab stuck to the bottle, she picked up the bottle and read it. It said 'Eat Me.' she scrunched her nose in thought, why does it say 'eat me'? It must have been incorrectly labeled, because no one eats a liquid. Xion began to feel strangely thirsty and she stared at the flask for a moment then took off the cap and sniffed it. She retracted and tried not to puke, it smelled absolutely disgusting. Replacing the cap, she placed the phial back on the table and tried stood up. Her head bumped against the ceiling, the room she was in was more like a box big enough for her only to sit in. Slumping back on the ground, she placed her head on her hand and glared at the little glass bottle.

Slowly, she reached her hand out to the flask. She turned the vial around in her hands a few times seeing if there was any clues of what the bottle contained. Wincing, she removed the cap, and quickly swallowed the whole bottle at once. She started coughing and wheezing and her mouth tingled. Her eyes watered and she shut them tightly. Xion opened her eyes and found herself on a little patch of land surrounded by weird animals with big, wide eyes staring up at her with shock. The one directly in front of her was a mouse that must have been ten times larger than any mouse she had ever seen. She spluttered and stumbled back in her haste to move away from them. Their shock left them as the things began to chuckle at her.

"Hi there." The mouse said in a high pitched voice as if he were talking to a small child. Xion scrunched her nose as he said that, it reminded her of her great aunt, she shuddered at the memory. "You don't to be frightened little girl," Her eyes slightly narrowed at him, "I'm Mickey, the guardian of the door between your world and our world." He smiled down at her, she cringed away, "Some people call me the 'door' mouse," He chuckled, "But you can call me Mickey."

She tried to smile at him but it turned into more of a grimace."...I... am Xion..." She held out a hand to the mouse. "Uh... Pleased to meet you..." She said awkwardly. Mickey looked down at her hand then he grabbed it and pulled the girl to her feet. She gasped from the sudden movement, her whole body started to ache. Three little ducks tried to keep her from falling down, but, the struggle resulted in them tumbling into a heap on the squishy ground. "Ow..." The tangled up children moaned.

"Sorry about that," Mickey said and scratched the back of his head. "I forgot that the potion effected people like that." He grinned, "Welp... if you want, I can help you get someone to help you leave this place. But you gotta trust me."

Xion bit her lip, "... If you really honestly can get me home... I...I promise to trust you..." She mumbled as she shakily stood up. The ducks tried to help again but she shooed them away and managed to keep herself steady. "Deal?" She said and looked sternly into the mouse's big black eyes.

At first, Mickey was taken aback at first, then he grinned and let out a small chuckle, "Deal!"

Xion felt a little warmer towards the mouse, but still she found him quite odd "First, I have ta' make sure that you really are the one who I'm meant to guide. Not that I have any doubt that you are but, rules are rules." His smile disappeared and a determined look, "Now, how did you get here?"

Xion bit her lip in thought, which 'here' did he mean? She didn't want to upset him by saying the wrong thing... "Well... I got to this world when I tripped and fell down a hill that ended up being some weird hole. Then I-" The dormouse cut her off.

"Wait, you really, truly, honestly, fell through the hole?" The animals all stared at her, making the girl feel unnervingly uncomfortable. "A-and you're alive…?"

"Well, I wouldn't be standing here if I wasn't now would I…?" She trailed off and raised an eyebrow as they all gapped at her. "What is it?"

"We've been waiting for you!" A tall dog-like creature threw his hat in the air. "Ya-hoooh-" His joy was interrupted.

"Goofy! You know it might still be a fluke! We still need to check the most important factor!" He turned back to face Xion and cleared his throat, "Can you, by some chance, call up some sort of key...?"

Xion took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and asked for the key. Her hand clasped around the handle of the key and she held it out to the awestruck crowd. "L… Like this…?" She asked with a tilt of the head.

The animals leaned closer for a better look and they all slowly nodded their heads. "...Y-yeah... That's it exactly..." Mickey managed to say, still struck with shock. The three little ducks tackled her into a hug, laughing as they, once again, fell to the ground. She laughed with them and let the key dissolve from her hand. Suddenly a shriek that sounded like a drowning toy pierced through the air and a hand dragged the giggling ducklings off.

"HUEY, DUEY AND LOUEY! The only we can make this work is if there are three of them! SO DON'T TACKLE OUR LAST HOPE! She could have been injured! Then what would we do!" Xion winced at the loud voice. She stood up and looked down at the yelling figure. It was a duck, and, obviously, it was overreacting.

"Ah, Mr. Duck..." She tried to interrupt but he just screeched over her. "Excuse me." She said raising her voice, but still she went unnoticed by the duck. "Mr. Duck, please..." He screeched on over her. She puffed her cheeks out and crossed her arms. "HEY!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. Xion took a deep breath and brushed hair out of her face. "Please sir, there was no way they were going to hurt me, I have a clingy brother who does this to me all the time. There is nothing to yell at them for..." She lowered her head and shuffled her feet.

"I'm sorry, m'lady." He let them go and bowed down.

"Erm... Just don't do it again..." She shrugged and gave him a small smile. "I'm used to hug attacks so it doesn't really matter."

"Yeah, Unca' Donald! You don't need ta get so angry." The duckling in the red shirt said and crossed his arms.

"Ahem!" Mickey rolled his eyes at Donald, then flashed a smile at Xion. "Miss, would like to get going?"

She remembered her brother and hesitated, "Ah, wait... um, have you seen a blond boy with a funny hair-do and a sitar around here?"

"Erm... If he's from you're world then he might not have lived through the hole," He said. "But he might have! There's an exception for everything, you know!" Mickey added as he saw the girl's eyes begin to water. Her round blue eyes shined with the tears that she did not dare shed.

'There is no point in crying now, what is gone cannot be brought by pointless tears,' Xion took a deep breath and lifted her head up high and brushed some of her dyed hair behind her left ear. "It... its fine..." She said firmly, talking more to herself than to the animals, "Please, show me the way home."

~•=•~

Xion glared at the tree in front of her. At the moment, she was extremely annoyed the montage of animals stalking her. They all insisted on being her body guards for ' short trip' to 'some people who can help'. Saying these things left her with more questions. How long was short? Who were said 'people'? What were they going to help her with? How were they going to help her?

But she wasn't annoyed because they were being so vague with her. She was frustrated because they were all obsessing over her. Xion concocted exactly 14 different ways to ditch them, but she knew she couldn't. If she did leave them, she would have no ways of returning home. Not that she had anyone waiting for her there. If Demyx fell down the hill like she had, which she had no doubt he did, then he was most likely dead, or whatever happened to people when they fell down the hole...

Her heart clenched in a tight knot whenever she thought about it. Lost in thought she failed to realize that someone was trying to speak to her.

"Hey, Xion, right? We're almost there. When we get there, boy, have we got some news for you." The duck in the blue shirt said.

"I think I've had enough for today." Xion laughed nervously. 'I'd much rather take a nap... Too much has happened for only one day.'

"My goodness," A female mouse said in a squeaky voice. "You looked dreadfully tired."

"Oh my, she does." A loud female duck said in a voice that sounded nothing like Donald's, which she thanked the stars for. Her headache was bad enough without the noise of drowning toys ringing through her skull.

"I will sleep when we get to our destination. Right?" She asked wearily. Her legs were going tired and she hoped they wouldn't give out. She really did need the sleep but she didn't want to stop moving yet. The faster they got to that person the faster they would leave her alone.

It wasn't that she particularly disliked the crew of animals, but they did tend to get on her nerves. Xion felt her eyes begin to droop and her feet stumble. She pulled on her cheeks to keep herself awake when someone shouted out, "Heartless!"

Xion looked around to see the little black creatures similar to the one she'd chased down the hole. They twitched like crazy some melted into the ground and slid about. The girl's eyes widened and she took a few steps back. Someone pushed her back towards the things.

"Xion, use the key!" A frightened Mickey called out to her.

'What good will a silly key do?' She wanted to scream back, but she knew she should listen to him because he knew an immense amount more than Xion did about this world.

She shut her eyes and called the key to her. As soon as she felt the cold and smooth handle of it she whipped it out towards her nearest target and sliced it through the middle. It turned to black dust that floated off into the world, as did the next one the key eliminated, and so did the rest of them.

The door mouse clapped Xion on the back. "Wow! You're a natural! We're almost there so keep your strength up for a bit longer." He smiled encouragingly up at her. She didn't need encouragement though, she just wanted to go to sleep. She hoped more would come out and ambush them, but none came for the rest of the way to their destination.

When they got to a little, broken down hut that seemed to be the size of a simple broom closet, she was ushered into it. She gasped and her eyes widened as she entered, the huts insides were much larger than expected and the fancy white interior was absolutely nothing like the outside.

A cloaked man walked into the room. She glared at him then looked around to ask the mouse who he was when she saw that they had all left her. Her eyes narrowed and traveled back to the cloaked man. He took off his hood in an eruption of flowers to his wavy pink hair and looked down at the girl whose courage did not waver from his piercing gaze.

'What queer day it is today...'

* * *

**_This started out nicely right?_**

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	2. Meeitng Nobody

The pink haired man stared fiercely at Xion waiting for her to say something. In return, the girl looked at him the same exact look. Neither made a move for long time. They just stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. This tested the man's patience, so did it Xion's. The man examined her and made the decision that she must have been brought there for a reason, no matter how wimpy she looked.

"Child, who are you and why were you brought here?" He asked with a slight amount of disdain.

"I'm not a child, I'm fifteen." She said coolly with the same amount of loathing and her eyes narrowed menacingly. "My name is Xion and I am here because..." 'What did some of the animals whisper behind my back again...?' "I am one of the key blades chosen." She said with an air of feigned confidence that she hoped was enough to convince him. The pink haired man's shoulders slump slightly.

"Must all three look so diminutive...?" He shook his head and sighed. "Follow me, Xion, I must bring you to number one." He turned and waved an arm and a staircase appeared. An arm gesture motioned for Xion, and she slowly walked behind him.

"What's your name?" She right into the man's eyes, not letting her face show emotion.

"I am Number XI, Marluxia." He said with not even the slightest hesitation.

"You're lying. That's not even a real name." She said and started walking, slightly annoyed.

"Xion is not a real name, correct?" He stepped along beside her. She blushed and looked down at her feet.

"My brother thought... I mean, thinks it is fitting..." She mumbled as Marluxia smirked.

"What? For his little sister to have a meaningless name?"

"You will shut your mouth if you know what is good for you... My brother was kinder than you could ever comprehend, you heartless man." She growled out, inwardly applauding herself for being so bold.

The pink haired man chuckled, "Ah hah, so you aren't as meek as you seem." He said with his smirk plastered upon his face. Choosing silence, she walked a little faster than before ignoring the man's silent chuckles. The stairs seemed to circle on forever.

Brushing her hair behind her ear, she spoke up again, "What is this place?"

"Hmm, I tend to ask myself that quite often..." He muttered, "This is not truly a place just a mirror, commonly referred to as The World That Never Was." He replied smoothly. "At this moment were in Castle Oblivion."

"O-oblivion...?" She asked nervously. It sounded so cold and ominous. "A-and what...how does a place get a name like 'World That Never Was?'"

"It is called that because this world never truly 'was.'" He replied with the essence of a teacher teaching his student. "This world is like a mirror of yours. We mimic people like you in every aspect but one... People here are like an empty shell of humans from your world. We do not usually have souls, which means we cannot feel such things as happiness, sadness, anger, love. Most of the time we call ourselves Nobodies and those like you with 'hearts' are called Somebodies."

"That's awful..." She breathed out with a voice edged with a pity. "But you said 'usually' does that mean that sometimes... sometimes you feel emotions?" She felt like she was asking a bit too much but Xion truly did want to know.

"Sometimes people are born with hearts, but it is extremely rare. In fact, the other key blade masters are the only who were born with them... It is odd that you were chosen from all the somebodies from your world..."

"I've found myself thinking the exact same thing since I got here." She laughed nervously and brushed some hair behind her ear.

Silence fell over the two again. Xion felt awkward walking next to the tall, pink haired man. She played with the lace on her new blue dress, too shy to want to start another conversation.

"Marluxia, do you not believe that an elder, like me, should take care of such an important package?" An eerie voice said behind them.

Xion jumped and spun around to see a tall blond man wearing a cloak very much like Marluxia's with vicious green eyes and a smirk on his mouth. He took a few steps closer to them, chuckling when Xion stepped back.

"Vexen, I believe that I can handle taking prisoner to Xemnas." Marluxia replied cooly. He grabbed the girl's shoulder before beginning to walk away. "If may excuse us, Xemnas is not one to be kept waiting."

Vexen laughed with out any real emotion. "I would advise you to leave the girl in my care."

"I would advise you to leave us-" A large blue shield flew past the pink haired man's head. He gritted his teeth and spun around his heel. Xion bit her lip and backed away from them. It was obvious something bad was about to happen. An eruption of pink petals came from Marluxia's hand and a pink bladed scythe appeared in his hand. "Are sure you want to do this?" He hissed at the blond, who in return simply shrugged,

"It is a futile attempt Marluxia, but if you would like to play then let us." He smirked and summoned the blue shield back to his hand. They stared at each other with narrowed eyes waiting for one to make the first move. The scene made her think of the old western movies she would sometimes watch with her brother. The cowboys staring intensely at each other, fingers just touching the gun in its holster, ready to pull the gun out at any moment.

Xion chuckled at the memories of Demyx and herself do this with water guns. She won then revived him with a kiss on the forehead then he pulled her down with him and tickled her until she almost peed her pants. Xion tried to hold in her giggles at the memory but the two enemies noticed her and shot terrifying glares at her.

This immediately stopped her giggles.

'They've got to be joking... Right?' She attempted to reassure herself. Taking a few breaths she calming breaths she felt slightly better... Until big spikes of ice shot from the floor towards Marluxia killed him! He quickly hopped out their way and shot towards Vexen, scythe raised high. The girl let out a frighten squeal and shut her eyes. Xion stayed like this for several minutes not wanting to look at the scene. Then something whooshed past her head and slammed into the wall.

That was when she decided it was no longer safe to stay in that room any longer.

Xion opened her large blue eyes and searched for the quickest way out of the room. The only open exit was the staircase going up. Xion pushed off the wall and headed for the staircase as quickly as possible, thankfully making it through unharmed.

She raced up the stairs until she was forced to stop and catch her breath. Feeling lost and light-headed, she sat down on the floor and tried to resist the oncoming urge to burst into tears.

She put a hand on each side of her head and pulled herself together. Everything ached and she just wanted to sleep. She groaned and picked herself off the ground. Brushing herself off, she heard someone cry out.

"Watch out!" The voice yelled. Xion spun around to see a gang of silver squirming figures behind her. Her eyes widened as they hopped onto her. Thinking quick, she called up her key blade and blocked some of them but when she tried to strike them, they would wriggle out of her way and Xion would just end up hitting air. She tried to swipe out at them at random but they moved to quick for her. Tightening her grip on the key she began to start a combo of hits when all the silver beings froze. Then they just dissolved into thin air and she saw there was someone wearing a black cloak standing right where the hoard had been.

"Pesky Dusks..." They mumbled and sighed. "Are you okay?" He asked Xion as he removed his hood to reveal blond pointy spikes and big blue eyes resembling her own. When Xion failed to reply and he stepped closer. "Hey, don't worry. I'm a friend. My name's Roxas." He smiled kindly but all she could do was shake her head. "Are you okay?" Roxas asked again.

Xion mumbled something inaudible just before she collapsed.

When Xion woke up she was in a strange white room wearing a long black hooded coat. She struggled to remember how she got there. All the girl could remember was running through a forest and then... 'Oh God! I've got to get out of here!' She thought remembering the fight between Marluxia and Vexen and how they almost killed each other and Xion herself.

She jumped out of the bed and immediately needed to sit down. The room was spinning and black splotches clouded her vision. Taking a deep breath she stood up again. The room was still spinning but Xion pushed past it and tried to find the way out. When she spotted the door and she ended up walking into the wall just next to the exit. Losing her small amount of balance she had and toppled over with a small cry and landed in someone's arms.

Xion looked up to see a pair of green eyes surrounded looking back at her. "Mornin' sunshine." The greened eyed man gave her a wide cat like grin. The girl tried to pushing herself up but failed because she was still missing a lot of strength.

"Good morning…" She mumbled back and tried again to get on her feet, this time she succeeded, with a little of his help.

"How are you feeling after your little nap?" He asked. The man had bright spiky red hair with purple roots. He was freakishly skinny, but his face was very attractive. Not that Xion had any interest towards the man, he must have been 21 at least.

"Hungry!" Xion said a little too loudly and blushed. Her blush deepened as her stomach growled.

"I thought so." He smiled before disappearing into a black hole.

Xion gasped and ran over to where he'd disappeared.

"Cool right?" The redhead said happily behind her. The black haired girl spun around to see nothing but thin air.

"How…? Where are you?" She asked, extremely confused.

"Anywhere I want." He whispered mysteriously into her ear. Xion turned around again finding a pair of green eyes staring back at her. Then his cat like smile reappeared then said, "Now sit your pretty little bum down on the bed and wait while I get you some food."

Xion obeyed and "sat her pretty little bum" on the bed and waited for the redheads return.

Xion bounced up and down on the bed for a few minutes before she got bored. The black haired girl put the hood from the jacket over her head and walked over to the door. Cautiously, she peered out to see if there was anyone around. Since no one was there she figured a little exploring wouldn't hurt if it only took a few minutes. It's not like the redhead was coming back anytime soon.

She walked down a long white hall for a long time and didn't see anything except some white stone vases with white flowers inside them. 'How peculiar…' She thought. 'I've never seen such a perfectly white flower…' She went to touch them, but felt something inside her say that she should definitely not touch the flowers. 'Well, why not?' She asked herself before letting the curiosity get the better of her and reached out to feel the flower.

It was ice cold and sent shivers down her spine. The icy feeling sunk into her bones painfully and shocked her. She hissed and pulled her hand away from the flower. Xion felt like she should keep walking down the hall, so she did.

Eventually, she saw a door and walked over to it. It was large, white and ornate with big swooping swirls covering the whole thing. Xion instantly felt fascinated by the door and felt the urge to open it and see what was behind it. First she leaned her ear against the door and listened to see if anyone was behind it. She heard voices yelling at each other, but couldn't make out what they were saying, all she could tell was that one was a boy and one was a girl with an annoying high pitched voice. Overcome by curiosity, she reached out to grab the door handle and pulled the latch when a slender black gloved hand slid over hers.

Xion gasped and pulled hand away from the handle. She spun around to see the pair of brilliant green eyes staring down at her. A large creeper smile was on the tall man's face. Xion began to sidle away from the door when the tall man put a hand on the wall to block her from running away.

"You know," He said and looked at the ceiling and put his other hand on his chin. "I noticed something."

"Oh, really?" Xion said with a polite smile on her face. "What did you notice?"

"That your pretty little bum is no longer on that bed." He tilted his head to the side. "Why is that?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about." She said questioningly. "How do you know that my butt is not on that bed, huh? I could have unattached it and simply walked away, completely following your orders."

He laughed for a moment then stopped abruptly and glared at her. "Don't lie. Now, you've got yourself into a little too much trouble for me to get you out. Quickly follow me before anyone else notices you." He pushed away from the wall and Xion took a deep breath before quickly following after him. "And remember, lying gives you a longer life span." The redhead said with a smile.

They had just barely walked away from the door when it opened and out came a girl with flat blond hair and little antenna like pieces of hair sticking up. She also had shocking green eyes and very pretty and sharp features.

"Marluxia, you're such a liar." She said obnoxiously loud. "I don't believe you. If someone like that had really come through then she would be in Ansem's clutches already. There's no way that she would have made it her in one piece if she were a key blade wielder. I mean, _really_, can't you come up with something believable to catch my attention?" She sighed dramatically and stalked down the hall towards Axel and Xion.

"Marluxia is such a little liar. Axel, you won't believe this. That pink haired retard said that another key blade wielder arrived, and walked straight in here just saying casually that she was one of the key blades chosen ones." The girl rolled her eyes before noticing Xion. "Hey kid, just doing your usual stalking rounds today, eh? Don't you ever get bored of following him around and being his lackey?"

Xion froze for a minute before shaking her head.

"Right," Axel said and grabbed Xion's shoulder. "Roxas is my stalker and no one else's. Now, let's get moving along before breakfast gets cold." Axel then began to run down the hall dragging a confused Xion behind him.

Once they got back to Axel's room Xion started to stuff her face with toast and scrambled eggs while Axel silently waited for her to finish. It was awkward at first because he was watching her with a creepy smile, but her stomach took over and she stopped caring about him.

She wiped her mouth with her hand then wiped her hand on her legs. "So your name is Axel?"

"Yup." He smiled. "A-X-E-L, got it memoried?"

"I've commited it to memory." She laughed and nodded. "You're quite odd, you know. So who is Roxas? He saved me, didn't he?" Xion leaned forward and rested her chin on the heel of her left hand. "I need to thank him..."

"He might have saved you from the dusks, but," Axel pointed at himself. "I saved you from starvation." They laughed happily and Xion felt like it was almost as easy to talk to Axel as it was to talk to her brother, even though she had just met the tall redhead.

Xion stepped up from the bed and bowed down to Axel. "Thank you _ever so much _for that extravagant meal of eggs and toast. How can I ever repay you kind stranger?" She said sarcastically and he stuck her tongue out at her.

"You can repay me with a kiss." Axel smiled slyly.

"No." She said flatly and crossed her arms. "How about I save your world instead."

"Fine." Axel sighed and let his head sink down. "But you know-" Axel started but was cut off when someone ran into the room panting heavily.

He was dressed in the black coat and his head was hooded. "Axel!" He said breathing heavily. "Everyone in the castle knows about the girl. If they find her they're going to kill her or worse, turn her in to Ansem! We've got to hide her better. If she was awake then it would be easier to transport her but we can probably just drag her through the hallways again if we need to."

Xion coughed loudly and waved when the boy looked over at her. He took off the hood and revealed his blond spikes and big blue eyes before bowing his head. "Good morning..." He said and winced. She recognized him to be Roxas, the boy who saved her from the dusks.

"Good morning." She smiled back. "So I hear people are out to capture me and kill me. Since I believe I'm needed for something, I'm guessing you both have a plan."

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged.

"Maybe. But first you must get ready for the tea party."

* * *

**_OH GOSH THIS IS LATE! I'm sorry! My computer went to go get fixed so I wasn't able to post this for a while... Better late than never, right?_**

**_Did I give Xion to much emotion? My sister was getting mad at me for making her too "Heartless". =_=;; Yeah._**

**_This was really just an explaining chapter... The next one will probably be a lot like this too..._**

**_And in the manga for Kingdom Hearts Axel sometimes says "Commit it to memory." I figured that was more of what he says in japanese, so that why Xion said that... Just for your information. :)_**


End file.
